Favorable economic conditions are prompting Brazil to pursue wind power, changing its course on future energy development to avoid the risks associated with other energy sources.Citing “wind power’s moment,” Brazilian officials may scale back their plans for other new energy installations, such as nuclear power. The risks of nuclear power stations have caught worldwide attention since the 2011 radiation leak in Japan.Brazil already leads South and Central America in clean energy investment, pulling in $5.17 billion of investments in 2012. It is projected to hit at least 15.6 GW of installed wind capacity by 2021.Mauricio Tolmasquim, chief of the Energy Research Company, told Reuters it was “unlikely” the government would stick to its plans to build four new nuclear plants by 2030 to meet rising demand for electricity.He declined to specify how many might be built instead.Tolmasquim’s comments, part of a broad assessment of Brazil’s long-term strategic plans for electricity generation, highlighted continued global doubts regarding nuclear power more than two years after an earthquake and tsunami led to an accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan.“After Japan, things got put on standby,” Tolmasquim said in an interview with Reuters last week. “We haven’t abandoned (the plans) … but they haven’t been resumed yet either. It’s not a priority for us right now.”- See more at: http://tcktcktck.org/2013/09/brazil-pursue-wind-power-riskier-energy-sources/57168#sthash.0FYtSg43.dpuf

Students across Tanzania and Uganda will soon be feeling the benefits of off-grid electricity supply, as new solar power generating systems are installed in their schools.Donated by Japanese company, Kyocera Corporation, the systems will be installed in four secondary schools across Tanzania and three primary schools in Uganda. The aim of the solar systems is to help improve the schools’ infrastructure and contribute to the students’ learning.Across the developing world around 50% of children still go to primary schools without access to electricity – more than 291 million children. This lack of electricity remains problematic for students who go on to secondary or tertiary education.Meanwhile in Africa, around 59% of the population still remain without electricity access at home – increasing to around 85% outside of urban centres.This lack of electricity can have a huge impact on a child’s ability to learn, and therefore their future earning potential, as an individual’s expected income is strongly related to the number of year’s spent in education.Across much of the developing world, the school performance for children attending rural schools without electricity is below that of children attending urban schools with it.Electricity can provide schools with light, allowing lessons to last longer, and can offer space heating and cooling, allowing lessons to continue all year. It can also enable access to media and communications during lessons.Kyocera’s latest donation is part of a wider project which aims to bring 600-watt solar power systems to 35 schools without access to grid electricity. Each facility will come with storage batteries as well as basic equipment such as lamps, TV sets and radios.These, the company hopes, with help light up classrooms and diversify the learning activities for students, while also offering the local community an energy source, which can be used to charge mobile phones.Kyocera representative Youichi Higashi said:I was deeply touched to receive handshakes from many students expressing gratitude. The value of electricity is difficult to understand in countries where power access is always available.So far, Kyocera has donated to 28 schools across the two countries.This latest project joins a host of other schemes which aim to bring off-grid electricity to rural Africa.For example, in 2011, Samsung launched a mobile, solar-powered classroom in Johannesburg, South Africa aimed at reaching children in the farthest corners of rural Africa.Built inside a 12-metre-long shipping container, the classroom contained a range of gadget from laptops, a video camera and a 50-inch e-board. Samsung said the school would be easily carried by truck to remote areas and operate where there is no electricity supply.UK charity SolarAid has also worked in rural areas across East and Southern Africa installing solar on schools, community centres and clinics and now has projects across Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia.

It would connect turbines off the wind-lashed north coast of Scotland with Germany’s vast arrays of solar panels, and join the power of waves crashing on to the Belgian and Danish coasts with the hydro-electric dams nestled in Norway’s fjords: Europe’s first electricity grid dedicated to renewable power will become a political reality this month, as nine countries formally draw up plans to link their clean energy projects around the North Sea.The network, made up of thousands of kilometers of highly efficient undersea cables that could cost up to €30bn (£26.5bn), would solve one of the biggest criticisms faced by renewable power – that unpredictable weather means it is unreliable. With a renewables supergrid, electricity can be supplied across the continent from wherever the wind is blowing, the sun is shining or the waves are crashing.By autumn, the nine governments involved – Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden and Ireland and the UK – hope to have a plan to begin building a high-voltage direct current network within the next decade. It will be an important step in achieving the European Union’s pledge that, by 2020, 20% of its energy will come from renewable sources.

At a time when the American economy is slowly recovering from recession, the clean energy and energy efficiency industries continue to outpace other sectors. From April to June — in only three months — nearly 60 clean energy projects were either announced or launched in 26 states, and these projects have opened up an estimated 38,600 green jobs.

The growth is both steady and diverse as the clean energy industry, the energy efficiency sector and the public transportation sector all grew. Plus, their growth is set to continue and even top last year’s numbers, as these industries are on pace to create a total of more than 110,000 jobs this year.

The break down of job growth shows that the solar industry is in the lead, with the creation of more than 10,000 jobs in Q2. Public transportation and smart transmission projects followed closely behind renewables, adding 9,600 and 8,200 jobs respectively. Energy efficiency created 5,700 new jobs, and the wind industry rounded out the pack by adding about 2,500 jobs.

America’s transition to a clean energy economy is well underway and powering a wide range of jobs across the nation. One quarter of clean energy jobs are in the manufacturing sector, and come with wages about 13% higher than the U.S. median.

This continued growth in the clean energy sector demonstrates that clean energy is an investment that pays while reducing the social and economic risks of climate change. Current market trends indicate that 25% of the world’s energy supply could be met by renewables by 2018, exceeding the capacity of natural gas. If this steady rate of renewables growth continues, not only would more jobs be created worldwide, but concentrations of greenhouse gases could be held to levels that avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Leaders from some of the countries most vulnerable to global warming are hoping to kick-start a “new wave of climate leadership” by having adopted the Majuro Declaration yesterday. The declaration has been forged by the Pacific Islands Forum on the frontlines of climate change, in a city that just weeks ago was submerged by high tides and flooding. It encourages the total phase out of dirty fossil fuels and could ultimately change the face of international climate negotiations by delivering an “I’m moving ahead and I invite you to move with me” model of action that has been conspicuously absent from UN talks. Demonstrating that “to lead is to act”, the 15 Pacific states that signed the declaration have all set themselves ambitious targets to “accelerate the transition to the low-carbon economy”. The Marshall Islands pledged a 40% reduction in CO2 emissions – below 2009 levels – and a target for 20% indigenous renewable energy by 2020. Tuvalu and the Cook Islands have both set targets to supply 100% of their countries’ energy with renewables by 2020, while Papua New Guinea pledged to become carbon neutral before 2050.These vulnerable nations are inviting others to “move forward” with them towards a climate safe future, urging world leaders to show more leadership and commitment to tackle global warming. Many countries – including the world’s largest emitters – offered words of support for the declaration, these include: Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, France, the UK, Japan and Malaysia. The EU and the US also fronted some cash, announcing 20 million in their respective currencies for Pacific Islands to stave off climate impacts, measures such as sea walls and early warning systems for tsunamis will be funded. The Pacific Island states have set the tone for progress and are hoping that partner countries will go beyond lip service and actually sign up to the Majuro Declaration as a key step in the process to agreeing a legally binding climate deal in 2015. As if to emphasise the necessity of this, new research published at the same time the declaration was signed shows how 2012’s wildest weather events were made more likely due to manmade global warming – echoing the Pacific island’s warning that “climate change has arrived.”